[R-390] (new header) Radio prices.

[Cecil Acuff]

I prefer to call it "Hedging the Market".

Yup I have 7 and unless everybody that had more than they actually listened 
to agreed to sell them for $200 each the price would not come down to that 
level.

Ebay's strong suit is that it puts items, that in the pre-Ebay days would 
have been sold on a flea market or garage sale table....marketed to only a 
few hundred people, in front of literally hundreds of thousands.  They 
literally find buyers for any seemingly insignificant item a seller will 
take the time to list.  Things that would have otherwise ended up in 
landfills prior to Ebay.

Problem is now there is a competitive market for these items and that causes 
the perceived value of those items to go up.  I don't believe there are 
enough R-390's being "Hoarded" to quell the demand.  The world seems to 
desire two things in the last several years.  Quality stuff made generations 
back and Quality American made stuff from generations past.  So if someone 
on this continent isn't buying the stuff, it's being bought by the Japanese 
or European buyer for example.

10 or 12 years back, before Ebay, I had this bug to pick up a Hammarlund 
HQ180A.  I figured it being a tube set and quite a few years old one should 
be able to buy them quite reasonably.  I called a couple of the large 
Shortwave radio retailers that were in business at the time...one that is 
still around today and was told...each and every HQ-180 that was being taken 
in on trade or bought was being shipped to Japan.  The Shortwave listening 
hobby was on fire over there and they could get 10 times what they had been 
able to get for them in the US, so unless I was willing to pay the prices 
being paid by the buyers in Japan I was out of luck....  Ebay has probably 
taken that business away from the retailers and put the profits back into 
the hands of the equipment owners where it should have been anyway....as I 
am sure they were not paid a premium for the "Old Tube Radio's" that were 
offered on trade.

We've seen that happen from time to time with the R-390A's as well....

Personally I plan to restore all of mine and they will go on Ebay, where the 
market will drive what I receive for my work...and then I will write a check 
for an equal or larger amount to the College where one of my kids is going 
and hopefully get through another semester without having to visit a loan 
officer!

It's hard that the good ole days of being able to pick up the things we love 
most at the local hamfest for pennies on the pound have all but past...and 
I'm sure there are not as many going to the landfill or found in dumpsters 
anymore because with Ebay there is a buyer out there somewhere.

There are however still stories about them being picked up for next to 
nothing at times....so the world hasn't come to an end yet...:-)

Cecil....

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith Densmore" <densmore at idirect.com>
To: <R-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 2:51 PM
Subject: Re: [R-390] Radio Mart burned my @#$%$ again


> Most people blame ebay for the higher prices charged for classic 
> boatanchors.
> I think the real culprit is something we can actually do something about 
> and which we are almost all guilty of, more or less--HOARDING.
>